Ottawa 67's trainer Brian Patafie accused London Knights general manager Mark Hunter of knocking the skate out from under him when he sought to use London riveting equipment during Thursday night's Memorial Cup game between the clubs.

You could call it Skategate.

Patafie claimed he was removed from the Knights dressing room during the first period of the game when he was trying to repair the skate of defenceman Brad Staubitz. Later, Patafie allowed that he was getting conflicting stories.

Staubitz, from Bright's Grove, ran into the problem about halfway through the first period. He was back for the start of the second period.

"The problem was a piece of steel on the bottom of the skate and I was changing it," Patafie said, adding he was removed from the dressing room by assistant general manager Jim McKellar and a Memorial Cup liaison person. He claims Staubitz played the remainder of the game on skates that had a variance in their lift.

Both McKellar and Hunter denied the accusations.

"He came into our room without anybody and you can't just tell a stickboy or somebody you're going into the other team's dressing room," Hunter said. "Chris Maton (Knights equipment manager) helped him out, got it fixed and that was the end of that."

Patafie, a 26-year NHL and AHL veteran as well as the 67's, recalls picking Hunter up at the airport when the Knights' co-owner was traded from Montreal Canadiens to the Calgary Flames.